“Yes, Antonia Gorga passed away at the age of 66. Teresa has been in the hospital with her and is inconsolable now. Teresa is also in communication with [her husband] Joe and will be visiting as soon as she can.”

So terrible.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the family, who is no doubt rallying together during what must be an incredibly difficult moment.

In a mission named Operation Turus, the RAF conducted air reconnaissance over northern Nigeria for several months, following the kidnapping of 276 girls from the town of Chibok in April 2014. “The girls were located in the first few weeks of the RAF mission,” a source involved in Operation Turus told the Observer. “We offered to rescue them, but the Nigerian government declined.”

Parents are withdrawing students from Khartoum’s University of Medical Sciences and Technology

The head of the Sudanese university where more than 20 young Britons were recruited by Islamic State has claimed that the group’s recruitment machine has been eradicated from the campus.

Attempting to reassure British parents that it is safe to send their children to Khartoum’s University of Medical Sciences and Technology (UMST), Dr Ahmed Babiker said that counter-radicalisation efforts alongside the dissolution of a controversial faith group had successfully extinguished Isis from the site.

As the pope leaves Rome for a retreat to mark Lent, rebellion and turmoil are in the air

When Pope Francis was elected nearly four years ago, on 13 March 2013, he was escorted – like every pope before him – from the Sistine Chapel to the Room of Tears. It is the place where a new pope pauses for a moment – and no doubt many of them do shed a few tears, thinking of the momentous responsibility upon their shoulders – before stepping out on to the balcony of St Peter’s to greet the world as the new leader of the Roman Catholic church.

When Francis, known until then as Jorge Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires, first appeared that night, he appeared remarkably sanguine, joking that the cardinals had gone to the ends of the Earth to choose the next pope. If he’d had any inkling of what these last four years would be like, he would surely have wept in that Room of Tears.

These are the people Donald Trump appears to be more and more in bed with across each passing day.

The Russian government is apparently coming under pressure to administer a nationwide ban on Disney‘s new film Beauty and the Beast because of the country’s tight laws against “gay propaganda,” and the alleged inclusion of an “exclusively gay moment” within the film.

According to reports from the BBC, Russian culture minister Vladimir Medinsky and other officials in the country are now under pressure to check the film and see if it ought to be banned, with likely action coming soon thereafter depending on the final decision.

There’s a specific Russian law that prohibits the spreading of “gay propaganda” to children, and considering the fact that the live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast contains Disney’s first-ever gay character and love scene, well, a ban might just come down.

The issue hinges on what film director Bill Condon has been calling an “exclusively gay moment” in the film, where the character LeFou (played by Josh Gad) tries to come to terms with his feelings for the film’s main antagonist, Gaston.

There’s apparently a “big pay-off” at the end of the film, which is due to be released in Russia on March 16, unless something changes.

And now, an MP named Vitaly Milonov from the United Russia party that governs the country has urged the nation’s culture minister to screen the film before it is released to see it if complies with the law.

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is on his way to Israel, where he is hoping to strengthen economic ties between New York and the United States ally.

“With the recent rise of anti-Semitism, it is more important than ever before to demonstrate the connection between New York and Israel, our intertwined histories and our common futures, and spearhead new economic partnerships to bring our communities closer together,” the governor said in a statement.

Before his departure, Cuomo took part in a round table discussion with Jewish leaders at the Park East Synagogue in Manhattan. He said New York will not stand for the recent surge in anti-Semitic acts.